Filed under: iPhone
If 30% is good enough for Apple in the App Store, it should be good enough for dropped calls on AT&T, right?
File this one under AYFKMWTS (are you freaking kidding me with this stuff?): a Gizmodo reader, aggravated with an unacceptably high rate of dropped calls on his iPhone, took it to a New York City Apple Store to have it checked for issues. The call dump statistics revealed a 22% drop rate on calls, which most of us would call "wicked awful" -- but not Apple and AT&T.No, in this particular case the Genius told our hapless iPhone owner that he should count himself lucky, as Apple's baseline stat for dropped calls in NYC is a blistering thirty percent. Yes, almost one in three calls on an iPhone in the Big Apple will end with frustration, and that's just OK with everyone.
Well, not with us. Combined with the "five bars, no calls" dead zones and mysterious "call failed" issues, it must be said: this phone is not getting it done when it comes to the whole phone thing, at least on AT&T's network in the city that never sleeps. Or, for that matter, makes an uninterrupted cell call.
[via Engadget]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Dan Palmer said 3:42PM on 9-30-2009
I have a UK contract with O2 and I thought they weren't that great with expensive contracts and poor reception, however the reception is the best I have had in the UK and no where near what American users seem to experience.
I have had my iPhone since the 3GS came out and not had a dropped call yet. I have had no problems making calls as long as I have one bar of signal or more.
I feel very sorry for the US users, AT&T seems to be awfully bad. I think that Apple should open it up to other networks like they have done in the UK now.
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user7 said 3:46PM on 9-30-2009
I'm lucky here in Canada on Fido. No dropped calls for me.
Michael said 3:52PM on 9-30-2009
Every sentence in these blog posts should be prefaced with "in New York."
Here in Seattle I can count my dropped calls in the last two years on one hand - my T-Mobile phone was far worse.
Not that I give much credence to what one dude tells another dude (except that it's bad journalism to base hysteria on that), but if true, it's a New York issue with AT&T, not necessarily an Apple issue.
Izzy said 6:27PM on 9-30-2009
I've had about 5% here in Indiana, and that's on a bad month. Having worked in Manhattan I can say that cell service there is terrible to begin with. The iPhone is just the first phone to expose the ugly truth because it tracks that data.
Ian said 3:46PM on 9-30-2009
I probably drop 1 in 5 calls in Seattle. Another 1 in 5 attempts fail to connect.
The drop rate was much better when I was on T-Mobile with my 1st Gen iPhone, but the service was spottier. Not sure which is worse.
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David Robison said 5:12PM on 9-30-2009
My Seattle experience is a bit better than yours, but definitely much worse than my T-Mo service (with other phones). The iPhone's still worth it, but I'd be happier with T-Mo as my carrier.
user7 said 3:44PM on 9-30-2009
I wonder how many dropped calls you would get if you were using Skype with the hack to allow for 3G usage. I bet it's lower than 30%.
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supakoopa said 3:46PM on 9-30-2009
I live in the suburbs in PA, and never have had a dropped call, or lost reception. You would think that in a city like New York they would have less dropped calls, as opposed to more.
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David Robison said 5:04PM on 9-30-2009
Actually, I think all the tall buildings make it difficult to blanket the area. I know SF has lots of problems (on all networks) because of the hilly terrain.
This doesn't excuse AT&T since NYC is an important and the densest market in the country.
Monica said 3:46PM on 9-30-2009
This isn't surprising actually! I bought one iPhone but have owned 3. I returned the first two because of this exact reason. And on top of dropped calls, I was getting both VM and SMS late or sometimes even the next day, and calls that never go through to begin with. This is with full Edge or now 3G. Apple was willing to change out my phone and I made a call to ATT to sort it out. For now everything seems fine, but am still getting plenty of dropped calls. I live in Los Angeles, so there really is no excuse for it.
As soon as the iPhone is released to another carrier or a better phone comes out... Xperia 3 maybe! I'm switching providers!
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Aaron said 3:50PM on 9-30-2009
I hate it. I live in Brooklyn and work in north Jersey. Calls drop a bunch. I do use Skype more often now. Less dropped calls of course.
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user7 said 3:51PM on 9-30-2009
That's awesome. Thought that might be the case.
MJZimmer88 said 10:34AM on 11-20-2009
I do the same thing. In NYC there is better WiFi coverage by going into just about any chain store (every coffee shop in existence in NYC, or fast food restaurant, or Best Buy, etc).
Skype has far fewer dropped calls.
Ismail Zahir said 3:51PM on 9-30-2009
oh ye? 30% dropped calls? Who cares about the calls? Still got the coolest phone which can do a million other things in style.
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Jeff said 6:53PM on 9-30-2009
This is a typical Apple fanboy statement. "So what about the phone calls, it's just a phone after all. It has lots of pretty colors though!" How many years did it take for Apple to incorporate all of the basic functions of many free phones on various carriers into their "wonder device?"
On a lighter note, props to TUAW to actually admitting a negative aspect of the iPhone. It goes without saying that reporting this was pretty unavoidable, and I can understand that NYC would be a hard area to blanket because of the buildings and the sheer amount of people. But one out of three? GSM was invented in the early 90's. Come on now.
krizoitz said 5:59PM on 10-01-2009
@Jeff
Why do you assume this is Apple's fault? AT&T is just as likely to be at fault here. What no one has mentioned yet is whether or not the dropped call rate of 30% is the same, better, or worse for other phones on the same network. That seems like a key piece of information.
I'm not in New York, but I haven't experienced dramatically different results from my iPhone than I did with my non-iPhone a few years back, although it was admittedly not a 3G phone.
Mike said 4:00PM on 9-30-2009
I've never had a dropped call. I used to have Bell then Telus in Newfoundland, and I just accounted the lack of problems to as diverse and modern a network as everywhere else but many less users. But then I switched to Rogers when the 3G first came out who, at the time, had a horrifically bad EDGE network on the island, and still no dropped calls (they updated to 3G a couple months ago). Now in Ontario, 3G everywhere, and no dropped calls. It seems like this just isn't an issue in Canada.
We should add it to our anthem: "Ohhh Canada, our drop-ped-call-free land!"
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Leo M. said 4:01PM on 9-30-2009
I feel bad for you guys that are having call issues. It would piss me off too.
No problems here in Chattanooga, TN (yes, I know it's a funny name)
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TheCastro said 4:03PM on 9-30-2009
The % rate changes depending on location across all service providers. With numbers of calls made in New York being so high the drop rate will be higher. I remember on 9-11 it was nearly impossible to make a phone call and the service dropped a lot, and that was across the country. I've lived and been to a lot of places. When anything happens good or bad and lots of people make calls service sucks.
Verizon and Sprint have similar threshold percentages with their phones in comparable cities. Usually economists and engineers come up with these numbers for the different companies and areas. So don't just complain AT&T is bad. It's all of them. Down here in Maryland I got a new iPhone with around 24% For dropped calls. And the genius dude was like wow that is unusually high.
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Rich said 4:18PM on 9-30-2009
Actually that's dead wrong. While all companies have a threshold especially in large cities like NYC, At&t decided to pick up the exclusive iPhone without having the network to support all the extra data services that people are using and that is why they are being singled out, they are selling a service they can't support. Not apples problem but it would be nice to see them defend their customers a tell att to get their crap fixed. I would love to see apple sue att for the lack of their support and get out of their exclusive contract with them. You can do it as a customer of att so it would make sense that apple could do it. Not saying there is any chance of this happening but it would be great to see cause many apple customers are getting screwed here. ESPICALLY business users who can't have this type of service. It just works right? Hardly.